E-waste management plans for Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: Steps to control e-waste in the capital city will be taken by the state government along with National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Foundation. NASSCOM, MAIT and the CEAMA in partnership with the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the State Pollution Control Board and the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) held a workshop here on Wednesday discussing the ways to sensitize the people of Bhubaneswar on e-Waste.

NASSCOM CEO Shrikant Sinha appreciating the state government’s initiative to join hands with them for making the people aware of hazards of e-waste, said that the e-waste thrown outside is mostly handled by child labours on open grounds and broken down manually to extract recyclable metals to be resold, leaving both the workers and the soil exposed to toxic materials like lead, cadmium, mercury and the acid fumes generated in the process.

The workshop is part of the central government’s drive to control e-waste across the country with a pilot programme being run in the cities of Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Imphal, Indore, Kolkata, Moradabad, Panjim, Patna, Pondicherry and Ranchi.

The awareness cum sensitization programme has been slated within a time frame from December 15 to March 31 2017. The impact report of the programme will be put on table by April 2017. Following, the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), MIT and State Pollution Control Board shall implement safe disposals and gainful extractions.

Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi welcoming the initiative, highlighted the importance of the citizens of the city to be made aware of the harmful effects of e-waste. He said that it should not be mixed with the household waste and rather it should be disposed of in a responsible manner.